The Missing Banana Republic T-Shirt

I hadn’t noticed this shirt before because it is hidden within a folded order form at the center of the Fall and Winter 1984 catalogues. When I first scanned them my copies didn’t have the order forms in them, they’d been torn out. Subsequently I’ve found complete catalogues and finally saw this shirt. Hence, “The Missing BR T-Shirt”. But it’s also missing because I have never seen one come up on eBay, but now I won’t be surprised when it does. Also note below a sweatshirt with the same logo design.

This “stacked logo” is most often seen on the clothing descriptor tags. I don’t know when these were introduced.

It’s interesting and timely because I had just posted about the mysterious banana (see below) with the “stacked logo”. Lo, and behold, that is the same logo on the breast pocket of the t-shirt! That could place the bandana in 1984, but really, it could have been made at any time.

This also has led me to discovering a new clothing tag! This stacked logo tag is found on one of my Banana Republic shirts (see below). These Yukon style shirts have a pre-Gap logo design on the breast and were sold from before the Gap purchase all the way until 1988. One has a Healthknit tag in it (which leads me to believe it is early in the run) whereas the other has this stacked logo tag. I have no idea where that tag fits on the timeline, it’s the first I’ve seen of it.